Egg on Toast, Redone!

Today was egg day. I had three recipes I wanted to try in determining a new way to eat eggs that didn't make me gag. In case you didn't know, I'm not a fan of the runny yoke. Surprisingly, this recipe included an egg that was a little gooey and the gooey yoke ended up being my favorite part of the dish. Yoke is apparently very useful as a slightly salty sauce that can tie a meal together. The flavors on this redone egg on toast were good, but next time I will use fresh chives or maybe some fresh basil. Overall, yum!

Egg on Toast, Redone

1 egg
1 slice of thickly cut French bread
Whipped cream cheese (or softened regular cream cheese)
Chopped chives
Balsamic vinegar
Cracked black pepper

Lightly toast your French bread and put aside. Heat a small skillet on the stove with a little bit of olive oil or butter. Crack the egg in the pan and season with pepper. Cook a few minutes on each side, depending on your preferred level of yoke goo (that's a technical term.)

Spread cream cheese on the toast and sprinkle with chives or other fresh herbs.

Add the egg to the toast.

Drizzle on the balsamic vinegar and enjoy!

Baked Eggs

Let me just start by saying this was a very delicious recipe. I also need to admit something: I don't like eggs. The only way I will eat them is scrambled or over-hard. I don't like the gooey yoke, so anything not completely cooked in an egg is not okay with me. When a recipe for baked eggs caught my attention in the food blogs a few months ago, I thought that it might work for me and my egg issues. The best part about baked eggs is that you can put anything in a ramekin, crack an egg on top with some cheese, throw it in the oven and forget about it for a few minutes. Then it's done and voila! A yummy, healthy (depending on what ingredients you use) breakfast! This may be my new favorite way to eat eggs.

Baked Eggs

Ramekins
Olive oil or butter
Eggs (1 per ramekin)

"Filling" ingredients:
Crumbled bacon
Swiss and Parmesan cheeses
Chopped chives
Zucchini, very thinly sliced
Roasted red peppers, chopped
Balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using butter or olive oil, grease your ramekins-1 per egg.

Put your "filling" ingredients in the bottom of the ramekins. Nick had crumbled bacon and parmesan cheese in his.

I had zucchini, roasted red pepper, and Swiss cheese.

Crack an egg on top.

Top with more cheese, salt and pepper, and chives. I drizzled balsamic on mine as well.

Cook for 15-20 minutes. 20 minutes will yield a hardened yoke, so if you want your egg a little gooey, go for 15 minutes and check it.

Other ideas for ingredients: chicken, garlic, onion, green onion, bell peppers, ham, turkey, spinach, asparagus. Basically, if you can cut it into pieces, you can toss it in the ramekin!

Mushroom and Red Wine Pot Roast

My mom makes the BEST roast. She has a few signature dishes that no one will ever be able to replicate, and her roast tops that list. It's cooked in beer and some other ingredients and it is so stinking good. She makes it and their house smells like roast all day so that by dinnertime you're literally salivating in anticipation of this hunk of delicious meat. When I asked her for the recipe for this beer roast, she said she just throws a little bit of this and that in a pot and never measures. Ahh! I can't recreate that! So for me, making roast is thereby a little intimidating. I can't live up to Mom, but I did do a good job on my own with my own recipe. I didn't add beer and I didn't try to recreate her recipe because, let's face it, there's no way I could. But this one is delicious too!

Mushroom and Red Wine Pot Roast

2-4 pound beef bottom round roast
1 tablespoon butter
8 ounces sliced button mushrooms
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup red wine
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 clove of garlic, minced

For gravy:
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons water

Trim fat from the roast if thawed. Add the roast to a slow cooker and turn it on low while preparing the remaining ingredients. Melt butter in a skillet and add mushrooms. Cook until tender and most of the moisture has evaporated. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix remaining ingredients up to the minced garlic. Add in cooked mushrooms and combine. Pour this mixture over the roast. Cover and cook on low 7 to 9 hours. If you're using a frozen roast, cook on low 9-10 hours.

For the gravy: Remove the roast from the pot and slice. Keep it warm until serving. Turn slow cooker on high. In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water. Stir into the liquid in the slow cooker. Cook on high for 15-20 minutes until the mixture has thickened. Serve gravy over the roast or on mashed potatoes. We ate our roast with roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Yum!

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I dream about roasted garlic mashed potatoes. We served them at our wedding. I order them at any restaurant that has them on the menu. And today I finally made them myself. I added ingredients and tasted to season as I saw fit, so bear with me on the measurements, as they weren't precise. The only difference I would make would be to incorporate the roasted garlic a little better with a hand mixer. Those little guys slip right through the tines of the potato masher! Another thing I might try next time would be to add either a little cream cheese or sour cream just to up the creaminess.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
by me!

Red potatoes (I think I used 2-3 pounds)
5 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup of milk
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
A bulb of roasted garlic*

*How to roast garlic: Cut off the pointy top of the bulb of garlic. Place it sprout side down on a piece of foil and drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil on top. Pinch the sides together to close the foil and place in a 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. The cloves will slide right out when it's done.

We did not peel our potatoes (the skins are good for you!), but if you want yours peeled, do so first. Then cut up potatoes into large bite-sized chunks. Try to get a uniform size to all pieces so they cook evenly. Place in a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Boil the potatoes for about 20 minutes, checking periodically for doneness (a fork should go in easily when done).

When potatoes are done, drain and return to the pot on a warm burner. Add in salt and pepper. Then place butter in the warm mix. Mash together then add milk and as many cloves of roasted garlic as you'd like. We used all of them from the roasted bulb. We're big garlic fans. Continue to mash or use a hand mixer to really incorporate the garlic. At this point, a little sour cream or cream cheese would be good too. Mix all ingredients together well and serve hot. Enjoy with mushroom and red wine pot roast!

Fontina Mac and Cheese

I love mac and cheese. I love anything smothered in cheese, but pasta is the ultimate in cheesy deliciousness. Usually I go for a sharp cheddar with a little mozzarella thrown in for the stringy cheesiness, so I wasn't too sure about this fontina mac and cheese. Fontina isn't a very strong cheese, but it does have a wonderful flavor. Overall, I did like this mac, but it didn't reheat well and things must reheat well in this house! I might make it again, but I think I'd use a different cheese. The method was great though and the only major change I made was to use half and half instead of heavy cream. Less fat from cream=no guilt when adding in extra cheese!

Fontina Mac and Cheese
*From Annie's Eats

1 pound small or medium shells (I used rotini)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 cup heavy cream (I used half and half)
8 ounces fontina cheese, shredded
Salt
Pinch of grated nutmeg
1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cook the pasta in salted water until 1-2 minutes shy of al dente. It will finish cooking in the oven, so don't worry if it has a little bit of a bite. Warm up the cream in microwave. Cut up 4 tablespoons of butter and add to the cooked and drained pasta. Stir in the warm cheese and the fontina cheese until it all starts to melt. Here's some yummy shredded fontina:

Mix in salt to taste and add in the nutmeg.

Pour the mixture into a buttered 2-quart casserole dish (I used an 8x8 dish). In a small bowl, melt the butter and add the panko and parmesan cheese. Stir together and then sprinkle on top of the pasta. Bake until the sauce is bubbly and the top turns golden brown, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Nana's Sour Cream Rhubarb Pie

Some of my favorite childhood memories include spending time with my Nana in her kitchen "helping" her cook. She always let me lick the beaters and whip the eggs with this spinning contraption (which is now sitting in a drawer in my own kitchen!). So many yummy dishes came out of her kitchen and I will always cherish those times I got to spend with her. She passed away in February 2008 and nothing is the same without her. But sometimes, just sometimes, you are able to capture a memory through something as simple as a recipe. This sour cream rhubarb pie was like sitting in Nana's kitchen eating pie with her. The pie brought it back for just a moment, but that moment was wonderful, especially for my mom. She thanked me for trying this recipe and bringing Nana back for that moment. Now, in tribute to Nana, who was always substituting things in her recipes (sometimes with good results and sometimes . . . well, velveeta fudge. And I'll leave it at that.), I didn't have enough rhubarb. So I substituted a cup of sliced strawberries for one of the cups of rhubarb. And it worked out just fine!

As for the pie, it was absolutely delicious. Of course.

Nana's Sour Cream Rhubarb Pie
Courtesy of Naomi Worthan, the best Nana ever.

1 unbaked pie crust
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 egg
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus 1/2 cup flour, divided
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Press the pie crust into a 9-inch deep dish pie plate. Spread the chopped rhubarb on the crust.

Whisk together the egg, sugar, sour cream, and 1/3 cup flour. Pour over the rhubarb.

Be careful not to overfill.

Combine the remaining 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, and melted butter. Sprinkle over the top of the pie.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake another 40 minutes. The pie will puff up and the center might remain slightly jiggly. That's okay. Let it cool completely before serving.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Every once in a while I get crazy food cravings. We have a Chinese restaurant by our house that delivers (YES! Delivers!) the most amazing and delicious food and I get a hankering for their dishes at least a couple times a month. Unfortunately, this habit can get pretty expensive, so I've been looking for good Chinese food recipes for a few weeks now. I tried out this recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken from Tasty Kitchen on my parents. Everyone loved it! My dad did suggest that I cut out a little bit of the sugar; it was a touch too sweet for him. I will also work on thickening the sauce up too. However, overall, my mom loved it and so did I. I can't wait to eat the leftovers this afternoon!

Because I was feeding so many people, I doubled the recipe in everything except the chicken. I used 5 good-sized breasts instead of 3. I also added a can of pineapple chunks, half an onion, and a red bell pepper cut in chunks.

Sweet and Sour Chicken
*From Tasty Kitchen

3 chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
Red bell pepper, cut in bite size pieces
1/2 a white onion, cut in bite size pieces (or larger if you're feeding my dad, so he can easily pick them out . . . )
1 can pineapple chunks, drained of juice

For the sauce:
3/4 cup sugar (next time I will cut this down to 1/2 cup)
4 tablespoons ketchup
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt
A few shakes of red pepper flakes

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cut up pepper and onion and drain the juice from the pineapple and set aside.

Cut chicken in chunks and season with salt and pepper. Dip in the cornstarch and then the egg. It will be a mess, but it's worth it! Fry the chicken in oil until it's browned on all sides, but not cooked through (about 3 minutes on each side). Place in a single layer in baking dish.

Add the pepper, pineapple, and onion. Mix sauce ingredients together and pour over the chicken, pineapple, pepper, and onion.

Bake 1 hour, turning the chicken every 15 minutes. Make another batch of the sauce (optional) and bring to a boil on the stovetop. Let this cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook until thickened and reduced, about 6-8 minutes. Serve chicken over rice.

S'mores Brownies

Sometimes you see a recipe and you just have to know what it tastes like. Not being one to do a lot of camping, I don't get to eat my favorite dessert very often: the magical, amazing S'more. So when I saw this recipe from Picky Palate, I had to try it. Other than making the brownies in a 13x9 pan instead of an 8x8 (which was what the recipe recommended), I didn't change anything. And next time I will use an 8x8 to get a little more batter on the top of the brownies. But the overall verdict was that these were good, so good that my dad ate so many that he did the groaning, rub-the-stomach, blame-his-daughter-for-overfeeding-him whine. They must be good if my dad was in pain!

S'mores Brownies
*From Picky Palate

1 box of your favorite brownie mix
Graham crackers
Hershey's chocolate bars
Giant marshmellows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the brownie mix according to the package directions. Line foil into an 8x8 inch baking dish and spray generously with cooking spray (VERY important-these little guys are like glue!). Pour half the brownie batter into the pan. Layer graham crackers on top of the batter.

Follow the grahams with a layer of Hershey bars.

On top of the chocolate, add a layer of marshmellows.

Pour remaining batter over the top of all that deliciousness.

Bake 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Remove from oven and let them cool completely. Carefully remove the foil and brownies from the pan. Peel away any extra foil and cut into squares. Makes 12 brownies.

Baked Chicken Taquitos

My little brother, Jake, loves chicken taquitos. The boy can eat a whole plateful in a sitting (and he never gains a pound-punk . . . ) with jalapeno cheese dip and then is a happy camper. When I saw this recipe from Our Best Bites, I knew I had to try it, if only for my brother. Well, no surprise, these were absolutely amazing. They tasted just like the ones from the box, except they were more fresh-tasting and spicy and crunchy and delicious. Nick is adamant that these are his new number one. He has asked me at least 4 times since making them when I'm going to the store to get more cilantro so I can make them again. I also took some over for Jake to try and now my mom's asking me for the recipe because he liked them so much. The best part: if you have cooked shredded chicken, this dish comes together in a matter of minutes.

Baked Chicken Taquitos
**Makes 14-16 Taquitos
*From Our Best Bites

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup salsa verde
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 green onion, thinly sliced (white and green parts, equal to 2 tablespoons)
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken
1 cup pepperjack cheese, shredded
Small yellow or white corn tortillas
Kosher salt
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. Mix the first seven ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the cilantro and green onion. Mix and add the chicken and cheese.

Place 3-4 tortillas between 2 damp paper towels and microwave 30-45 seconds, until they are soft and won't crack. Place 2-3 tablespoons of the chicken mixture on each tortilla, keeping it a 1/2 inch from the sides.

Roll up the tortillas as tightly as possible; use toothpicks if necessary. Place them seam side down on the baking sheet. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with KOSHER salt (makes a big difference, trust me).

Bake 15- 20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to brown. Enjoy with restaurant style salsa!

Restaurant Style Salsa

This is yet another recipe from the Pioneer Woman. A month ago I made a GIANT batch of salsa roja, which required me to roast a massive amount of veggies. It took hours to create and make, especially since I had to do it in 4 batches in my food processor. My kitchen looked like a tomato bomb had gone off in it. This time it was MUCH easier and tasted better, in my opinion. The only change I made was in using two jalapenos instead of one. I like things spicy! This is a simple, restaurant style salsa that anyone with a food processor or blender can make and enjoy. Make this salsa and it will be a good day!

Restaurant Style Salsa
From The Pioneer Woman

1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained (use Hunt's-they taste the freshest)
2 cans Ro-Tel tomatoes and peppers, drained (we use one can of original and one can of hot)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2-3 whole jalapeno peppers, quartered and sliced thin
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 heaping teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup cilantro, or more to taste (we use an entire bunch because we LOVE cilantro!)
1/2 large lime, juiced (or a whole small lime)

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Watch the level of liquid from the Ro-Tel and whole tomatoes, so you don't have an overflow situation (unfortunately, I speak from experience . . . ). Pulse until it is the consistency you like, usually 10-15 pulses. I don't like big chunks in my salsa, so mine is pretty smooth. Test the seasonings and adjust as needed.

Important step: Refrigerate for at least one hour. This allows the flavors to marry and become even more delicious!

Restaurant style salsa and homemade chicken taquitos. YUM!